Mark Garcia jumped at chance to become Redlands' police chief

REDLANDS - The change in scenery has made for a nice change of pace for Police Chief Mark Garcia.

Garcia, a year and a half into his tenure as Redlands' top cop, spent nearly 25 years in San Bernardino, attaining the rank of assistant chief of police.

With its high crime rate and rough reputation, perhaps it would have been easy to leave the city behind.

Not for Garcia. His law-enforcement career started in San Bernardino and it flourished there. But he leaped at the opportunity to lead the Redlands department, although it was not an easy decision to make by any means.

"That (San Bernardino) is my home department; that is where I started," Garcia said. "I loved the city and I loved the department. It was a great place to work and I got to work with some of the best cops you will find in the world."

Garcia wasted little time after being sworn in as Redlands' police chief. He embraced an unsolved case almost immediately - a double homicide in which four people were shot.

Garcia chose to take a fresh look at the case, brought in new investigators.

"That was one of my highest priorities, the need to solve that case," Garcia said.

Garcia added, "We put forth the effort, the energy, the overtime, the manpower that was necessary to do that. And we were successful in solving that case. Those four people are in jail waiting for their preliminary hearing and hopefully they will be held accountable."

In November, Garcia watched as his staff conducted a manhunt, eventually capturing the fugitive with the help of the community.

"You see those types of things happening in other cities but those aren't the type of things you see in this city," Garcia said.

Garcia took over as Redlands police chief in June of 2011. He was one of seven candidates interviewed for the position and met with four panels. He took over for Jim Bueermann, who had been with the Redlands Police Department for 32 years.

"Redlands always had a good reputation," Garcia said. "It was a reputation that they were a good department and that it was diligent with investigating crime."

Seeking the spot in Redlands was something he couldn't pass up.

"It was a great opportunity and even though I loved my career in San Bernardino, I did have aspirations and goals to become a police chief," Garcia said. "I had to seize the opportunity when it made itself available. There are not many of them."

Garcia has 79 police officers on his staff, down from the department's 98 about three years ago. At one point he had 356 in at San Bernardino.

He'd like Redlands' number to be in the 90s.

"It's difficult to say exactly the number we should have," Garcia said. "We have a total of 126 employees. This is where we sit right now."

Garcia said he tried to meet with everyone on the staff, individually and in groups. He has reached out to the community as well in the form of community forums.

"The department has been very welcoming and it brought me in as part of the department," Garcia said. "That was my goal. When I came here I wanted to be part of the Redlands Police Department. I wasn't here to bring the San Bernardino Police Department to Redlands. I wanted to be part of the Redlands Police Department. It has a great reputation and I wanted to be a part of that."